Waldwick – There was a poetry reciting, a great deal of praise, the presentation of a keepsake plaque and, of course, cake, cookies and punch, all to commemorate Patricia Boyd’s service as the public library’s director for the last 10 years.

At a send-off party Dec. 18 sponsored by the Friends of the Library, Boyd, dressed in a modest black suit and sporting a white corsage, stood smiling as one person after another said their goodbyes, sprinkling their comments with jokes and words of appreciation.

"Your friendship touched us all," said Mayor Thomas Giordano standing before the crowd of about 75 people in the new meeting room at the library. "You presided over two renovation projects and we all know that was easy."

At that, the crowd laughed, as most people were aware of the difficulty of both projects, with the most recent finished just days before with the completion of the heating and air-conditioning work in the meeting room and archive room — a $400,000 project, including new furniture. The first project was the addition of a children’s room about eight years ago.

On a different day, before Boyd’s successor, Allendale resident Lori Ann Quinn, began shadowing her daily to learn the job, Boyd reflected on her time as Waldwick’s library director.

"Start here. Go anywhere," she said. "That’s our motto."

And now, Boyd is preparing to do just that — retiring to a quieter life in Pennsylvania where, at the very least, she plans to volunteer, possibly in a museum, or even another library.

Pointing to her wall, Boyd talked about how she admired the painting she purchased years ago to hang in her office. In the painting, four white empty Adirondack chairs face the sun.

"It’s called ‘Island Library’," she said. "Jaime Wyeth painted it — he is the same painter that did the official JFK portrait."

Boyd is particularly interested in Wyeth paintings because the Wyeth Museum opened recently near Chadds Ford, Pa., where three generations of Wyeths’ works are displayed and where she and her husband plan to move.

Armed with a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Delaware, she worked as a freelance copy editor and proofreader at Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, from 1985 to 1995. Then she became a part-time assistant from 1995 to 1997 at the Waldwick Library, and love bloomed.

"When I worked at the circulation desk, I thought, ‘Wow, why would anyone want to do anything else?’ But I started thinking about it and decided to go to Rutgers for my master’s of library science. I wanted to do more."

She became assistant director and reference librarian at the Township of Washington Library from 1997 to 2002. By the time she was ready for the director’s position in Waldwick, she had her master’s in hand. On Feb. 1, 2002, she took the helm.

"When I came in, we were in the midst of renovating the children’s room," she said. "We quadrupled it. So, I spent my first year here sorting, cleaning and eliminating old records and weeding out the collection.

"It was a nice time to come in, because I was able to revamp the interior with new wall paint, new rugs and new furniture."

Much fundraising later, $250,000 worth of furnishings were purchased, making a "tremendous" difference, she said.

"It was great to see the look on peoples’ faces as they saw everything after that grand re-opening," she said.

For three to four months during that renovation, the library had to close. Wyckoff came to the rescue, she said, giving the Waldwick library employees a place to work.

The most recent renovation, a $400,000 meeting room and an archive room with new furniture, was "easier" compared to the one in 2002.

"We didn’t have to move out, but we had contractor issues that eventually worked out after we had to let the old one go and hire a new one to finish the job," she said.

While the grand opening for the two new rooms was in early October, the air conditioning and heating system was completed in mid-November.